Paintings
in the ceiling “Muses” by Francesco Solimena (1657/1747)
from Campania, the best pupil of Luca Giordano

“Solimena
kept the good traditions of doctrine and style embraced in his rejection of the
Baroque, resulting generally in a technical virtuosity, often not immune from
statuary effects in his most studied intent of motion. (...) The formula of
Solimena was in the first half of the century, more responsive to the courtly
artistic conceptions of kings and powerful aristocrats, remaining at the time
the rediscovery of the Baroque, recycled in terms of rococo, relegated to the
sensitivity of the futuristic bourgeois salons across the Alps or of small
Italian collectors of more advanced cosmopolitan tastes” (Giancarlo Sestieri)